


Another Glass of Whiskey

by Dearly_Divided



Category: Far Cry 5
Genre: Clueless Deputy, Drinking, F/M, Flirting, Late Night Conversations, Pre-Relationship, does this count as a meet cute?, pre-game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:01:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23851234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dearly_Divided/pseuds/Dearly_Divided
Summary: Months before the disastrous attempt to arrest Joseph Seed, Deputy Anna Bishop finds herself drinking alone at the Spread Eagle when she's interrupted by a charming stranger.
Relationships: Female Deputy | Judge/John Seed
Comments: 6
Kudos: 50





	Another Glass of Whiskey

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SolidHawk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SolidHawk/gifts).



> A gift for my darling friend Katie (SolidHawk) featuring her Far Cry OC Anna Bishop, who is, in my opinion, absolute wife material 💖

“Rough night, Deputy?” 

Anna’s eyes drifted from the glass of freshly poured scotch whiskey to the intruder, a single eyebrow cocking as she took him in. His eyes were the first thing she noticed, a pretty blue, glimmering with an innocent sincerity she didn’t buy for a minute. The scar on his chest, the word SLOTH carved into and crossed out on his skin being the very next. It was an odd scar to show, a little unnerving even, but Anna had better manners than to stare or pry. Despite it, he was handsome - fine cut cheekbones, dark hair gelled back and a neatly trimmed beard to match, and he was smiling at her. 

Anna snorted, “And what makes you say that?”

It wasn’t quite a dismissal, she wasn’t that rude, but it was hardly a welcome reception. Yet the stranger just laughed, pulling out the bar stool beside her and settling himself down, wordlessly motioning for Mary May to pour him one of the same. Anna felt it when his gaze returned to her, studying her the same way she had him.

“You’re drinking alone at a bar on a Tuesday night,” he replied with a wry smile.

“Is there somewhere _else_ I should be drinking?” she asked, a little more bite to her words than she intended. Still, the stranger didn’t seem phased, simply shrugging as Mary May slammed his drink down in front of him with a scowl and quickly stalked away. Clearly, not a fan.

“Just an observation.” The stranger stuck out his hand, “John Seed, and if I’m not mistaken, you’re the new Deputy,” his eyes glanced down to the embroidered tag on her chest, “Bishop. Can I trouble you for your first name?”

For a moment, she was silent, choosing instead to pick up the glass tumbler and take a slow sip. The whiskey burned as it went down, but it felt familiar, comforting, in an odd sort of way. She could tell him - John - to fuck off, and he’d probably go. Maybe not without some delightful parting comment, but he didn’t seem the type to get aggressive… then again, in Anna’s current mood, she’d have no qualms taking his ass to the floor if he so much as looked at her wrong.

Her eyes flickered from the outstretched hand, covered in little black intricate tattoos, back up to his face. His smile never wavered, nor did he lower his hand as the slow seconds passed by. He wasn’t wrong though, she was in a foul mood and she was drinking alone, mostly because she didn’t have any friends in this town to go drinking with and Staci, the flake, had bailed on her.

So what was the harm in saying yes?

Anna sighed, the sharpness in her eyes softening as she took John’s hand - surprisingly warm - and shook it gingerly. “Anna,” she said.

John’s smile widened, “Anna Bishop.” He said her name like he was savouring the taste of it - rolling it over across his tongue, weighing it against her. She half expected the usual response; ‘It suits you,’ or the ever insightful, ‘Beautiful name for a beautiful girl,’ but then again, John didn’t strike her as the kind of man to take the easy shot. Charming, maybe, but not one to snatch at low hanging fruit.

“So tell me, if a rough night drives a woman like me to drink alone at a bar like this, what’s your excuse?” Anna paused to take another sip, the faintest hint of a smirk playing across her lips, “Or is this your idea of a fun night out? Hitting on sad, lonely women drinking at the bar?”

John laughed again, the sound rich, pleasant and warm. “You think I’m trying to hit on you?”

Anna’s eyebrow quirked again, “Aren’t you?”

“What’s to say that my excuse isn’t the same as yours?” he mused instead. “You don’t get to have a monopoly on shitty days, Deputy.” 

There was something strange in his gaze as he regarded her, a flickering of something strikingly cold and aloof, but it was gone as soon as she’d glimpsed it leaving her to wonder whether she’d really seen it at all. But still, there was a lingering feeling in the pit of her stomach as she studied his face. There was no sign of dishonesty, and while the hint of playful teasing was still written across his smile, it didn’t quite reach his eyes. Curiosity, a besetting sin of hers, urged her to push, to _pry_. 

Yet better sense (and _some_ semblance of manners, for that matter) told her not to. She hardly knew him, and she certainly wasn’t prepared to spill if he turned it around onto her.

“But it’s only odd when _I_ come here to drink my sorrows away afterwards?” she shot back.

John’s gaze darted either side before he leaned in close, as if he were about to let her in on a secret. “Does it look like this is the kind of place I come to often?” he asked in a dry voice. His eyes darted up to focus on a figure behind her, and Anna turned to follow his gaze just in time to see the withering glare Mary May was shooting his way from across the other side of the bar. “Especially with such delightful and hospitable service.”

Anna had to admit, John did look more than a little out of place. It wasn’t the way he was dressed - his odd but clearly expensive taste in fashion, it was something else entirely. John Seed didn’t quite look like he belonged in a place like Hope County.

She’d bet good money that he hadn’t grown up here, but who was she to judge? 

“And yet here you are.”

John lifted his glass, tilting it in her direction in a one sided toast. “Here I am.”

For a few minutes, neither of them spoke, content just to sit in the comfortable silence, listening to the faint sounds of _Take Me Home, Country Roads_ playing from the jukebox in the corner while they drank.

“Shitty days aside, do you like it here, Anna?” he asked eventually. “Hope County, I mean, not this _lovely_ establishment.”

For the first time that night, the smile that crept across her face was genuine. “Yeah, I do,” she said. “I fell in love pretty much the first moment I saw it. The Valley it’s… beautiful.” There was far more to it than that, but Anna didn’t know how to explain to a veritable stranger the calling she’d felt the first time she’d set foot on Hope County soil. She’d lived in a lot of different places, some of them nice, most of them she’d been glad to see the back of, but nowhere had felt so much like _home_. “What about you? You’re not from around here, are you?”

A faint flickering of surprise lit his face.

“Tell me I’m wrong,” she prodded.

He didn’t deny it. “It has its… beauty, I suppose, and it’s where my family is. That’s enough.”

It felt like a half truth, but she wasn’t going to push it. Her drink was almost finished and while it wasn’t _late_ late, Anna was all too conscious of the fact that her shift started early and that she’d already had quite a few. With a polite nod she picked up her glass and downed the rest of her whiskey in a single gulp.

“Well, I hope your night gets better,” she said, sliding her now empty glass back across the countertop and reaching for her bag, “But-”

John’s hand on her wrist pulled her up short. “Stay,” he said, his eyes flickering over her face with an odd sort of intensity. He must have noticed the slight furrowing of her brow, the subtle downward curve of her lips as she stared back at him, because whatever it was that swirled in those stormy blue depths softened a moment later and he quickly released her with a sheepish smile, “One more drink, Deputy, for a shitty night. On me.”

Better sense would tell her to go, and quickly. There was something a little off about the whole situation, and she’d have to be blind not to notice that Mary May wasn’t the only one in the bar glaring at John.

Any other night, she would have walked away, but tonight?

Maybe she could use the company.

“One more drink,” she relented, letting go of her bag and calling Mary May over. “But if you think I’m going anywhere but home afterwards to crawl into bed and sleep _alone,_ ” she emphasised, _“_ you’re gonna be disappointed.”

John laughed, “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Butterflies fluttered in her stomach, the faintest hint of a blush tinting her cheeks as Mary May walked over. “Another one, Dep?” she asked, pointedly ignoring John at her side.

“Another _two_ , please,” John chimed in, holding a black credit card between two fingers. “Thank you, my dear,” he all but purred as the disgruntled bartender snatched it away from him. 

John barely paid her any attention, focusing back on Anna, “I moved here with my brothers a few years back. Joseph chose it, I don’t really know why. He said… he said that there was a calling he felt, like this was the place we needed for our fresh start.”

She had nothing to say to that, so she just nodded, shooting Mary May a grateful smile as she poured the drinks.

“Thanks.”

“No worries, hun. Enjoy,” she said, returning her smile, though it faded somewhat as her blue eyes flickered back at John and she quickly stalked off. 

John sighed, picking up the scotch and watching the amber liquid as he swirled it around the glass. “To answer your question, ‘ _why drink here_?’… my brothers, well Joseph in particular, they don’t approve of me drinking. Not without warrant, I suppose,” he shot her another half smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “When we moved here, when Joseph started his… _church_ , it was supposed to be a clean start, a blank slate.” He took a slow sip, savouring the smoked honey notes before swallowing. “But some habits are harder to break, I guess. Especially on bad days.”

Anna busied herself in her whiskey. It was dangerous territory. Family and expectations and disappointment, veritable minefields that she had no intention of navigating tonight, not even with the help of more than a few glasses of scotch. But it would be rude to ignore his comments entirely, so Anna chose the safest route, the one that wasn’t likely to lead back to any uncomfortable revelations. “Your brother runs a church?”

While there were a fair few churches dotted around the County, some in better shape than others, the only one she’d actually set foot inside was the one that Pastor Jerome ran in Fall’s End, and even that had been on official business.

“Of sorts,” he replied cryptically. “It’s really more of a community.”

“Oh.” Anna took another drink.

John chuckled lightly, “I take it you’re not the religious sort.”

Her stomach twisted uncomfortably, but she plastered a polite if not sheepish smile across her face regardless. “That obvious, huh?” 

Yet John didn’t seem put out by the discovery. Rather, he leaned in close and reached for her hand. For a split second, she debated about snatching it back before he could touch her, but when his fingers wrapped around her wrist, the soft pad of this thumb brushing slowly against the back of her hand, Anna forgot how to move. “I promise I won’t hold it against you,” he said with a wink. “A lot of our flock weren’t believers at first, either. A lot of them felt abandoned by their churches, disillusioned by the society that tossed them aside and told them they were worthless.” She felt the weight of his gaze as it burned into her, the soft pools of blue seemingly stripping her bare beneath him. “Every one of us has made mistakes, Anna, myself included, but it doesn’t mean we’re beyond salvation.”

Anna swallowed, her cheeks flushing pink. Too much, she’d had far too much to drink, she wasn’t thinking straight. 

“I, uh-” The words were stuck in her throat, refusing to be spoken.

Closer still, he inched. “Our Project is about forgiveness,” he whispered. “ _Acceptance_.” With his free hand, John picked up the glass and in three effortless gulps, drained the rest of his whiskey, all the while holding her gaze.

“You should come by and visit one day,” he said, setting the empty tumbler down on its coaster with a wide, charming smile. “You’d be more than welcome.”

Abruptly, he let go of her hand and just like that, the spell was broken. Anna fought off the shiver as John suddenly stood, “I should go. It’s late after all, and I’ve kept you long enough.”

She was still reeling from whatever the hell had just passed between them, but numbly she nodded. “Yeah, no, I should… I should go too.”

His smile widened, “I hope I see you again soon, Anna.”

It would be rude to tell him that she had no intentions of coming to visit his brother’s church, so she just nodded. “Thanks for the drink,” she said instead.

There was something indulgent and all too heated in his eyes as he spoke next, “Any time.”

And then he was gone, leaving Anna alone with her scattered thoughts, flushed cheeks and half a glass of scotch whiskey.

“You okay, Dep?”

She almost jumped at the voice before she realised that it was just Mary May, drying off glasses in front of her. She hadn’t even heard her walk over.

She shook herself free of her reverie, “Yeah… yeah, I’m fine. I think this’ll be the last one though,” she said, indicating her drink.

But Mary May didn’t look quite convinced. “Listen, I’m not one to pry. Your business is yours, but if I can offer a word of advice?” She paused long enough for Anna to nod. There was nothing light or friendly in her eyes as she spoke next, “Stay away from John Seed. He might come across all smiles and charm, but that boy ain’t right. Him and his family, they’re dangerous, a lot more dangerous than most folks ‘round here give him credit for. I’m not sayin’ you can’t take care of yourself, but… be careful, yeah?”

Her head was swimming in a dull haze, heart still racing and it was all she could do to nod her head. The faint, flickering unease she’d felt earlier reared its ugly head, bringing with it a wave of nausea that crashed over her.

She’d drunk too much. This was all _too much_. 

Especially on tonight of all nights.

Yet even with the cold, clammy dread that crept through her body like a disease, she could still feel the lingering warmth of his hand over hers.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope y'all liked it!! Comments and kudos are always appreciated!!


End file.
